Wisden Cricketer obituary
Richard Peter `Dicky' Davis, who died at Blean, near Canterbury, on December 29, aged 37, after a two-year battle against brain cancer, was a popular and much respected member of the county circuit who played for a record five counties: Kent, Warwickshire, Gloucestershire, Sussex and Leicestershire. Davis played the last of his 170 first-class matches for Leicestershire at Northampton in August 2001 when he was summoned from a coaching course at Oundle School for a one-off appearance to bolster their attack on a turning pitch. Two weeks later he suffered a seizure and was sent for scans which revealed a malignant tumour. A long course of treatment followed but a second, more aggressive, tumour was diagnosed which required surgery last September. Davis joined Kent in 1985 on the same day as allrounder Danny Kelleher, who took his own life in 1995, and Alan Igglesden, a future England seamer who is also having treatment for a brain tumour. He moved to Warwickshire in 1994 and became an important member of the side that completed county cricket's first treble - Championship, Benson and Hedges Cup and Axa Equity & Law League - that season. Davis struck up an effective partnership, and firm friendship, with off-spinner Neil Smith and the 80 wickets they shared were crucial to Warwickshire's success. Within a year Davis had asked to be released from the final year of his contract with Warwickshire. It was a decision born of frustration at losing his place early in the 1995 season and one that he regretted. It also reflected a lack of confidence in his ability even though a career record of 421 first-class wickets at 34.92 was a reasonable one for a spinner on covered wickets. "Dicky was a better cricketer than he sometimes appeared to believe he was," says Bob Woolmer, who coached Davis at Kent and Warwickshire. "He also had the makings of a good coach because he thought about the game so deeply." Davis retired from full-time cricket in 1997 and appeared to be set for a successful career in coaching - he was assistant coach of the England women's team in 2001 - until he was taken ill.
Paul Bolton